Baylake Bank warns public of draft scam

Baylake Bank is alerting the public of a remotely created draft scam that is causing unauthorized withdrawals on accounts, and seems to be affecting customers at various area financial institutions as well as throughout the country.

A remotely created draft is a paper item that utilizes customer account information, and works very much like an automated clearing house (ACH) transaction to transfer money, according to a Baylake Bank news release. The paper item being received is fraudulently withdrawing money from the account, and can only be noticed when account activity is reviewed by the customer. The scam withdrawals reported to date have been in the amount of $29.95 under one of the following payee names: Web Service, Global One World System, Web Entertainment, World Entertainment or Web World.

Baylake is advising people to monitor their bank accounts frequently. If a person believes their account has been affected they are advised to not call the number on the remotely created draft, contact their bank, print a copy of the questionable draft and bring it to their bank, and contact local law enforcement to report the incident of possible fraud.

"We work to safeguard our customers through every means possible, including helping our customers understand ways to protect themselves," said Baylake Bank Security Officer Dennis McIntosh. "However scams like this one require that our customers be even more diligent in monitoring their accounts for unauthorized activity. We want to warn the public so it doesn't happen to them."